Nursing Interventions

Poverty and Its Impact on Health

Poverty is a major problem in today’s world, affecting nearly all households. It is vital to remember that when a family is poor, concerns such as overcrowding, as well as emotional disorders or psychological stress, are more likely to occur. All of these issues contribute to people’s overall unhealthiness. As a result, it is critical to implement mechanisms that allow a nurse to give problem-solving interventions. Forming a collaboration between the nurse and the family is one of the strategies. This can be advantageous because the nurse can always tell the family of the numerous alternatives available to them. Another intervention is that the nurse can visit the family and advice them on the living arrangement and also how to live a good health life with what they have. This may be ways to reduce diseases in the home. It is crucial that the nurse helps the family and act as a friend so that the family does not feel alone or neglected. This can be advising the family on how to avoid diseases such by simple tasks such as ensuring ventilation and maintaining hygiene (Spector, 2002).

Appropriateness of the Interventions

Family demographics are very important to consider in such a scenario. It is important to acknowledge that the distinct cultures make it a bit difficult for the families to be assisted in the normal traditional way. A nurse has to consider the different people from different cultures may react different to different issues. The family even though has been connected in one way or the other may be in a position to act as a unit and hence difficulty in reaching out to them. It would thus require the nurse to strategize in a way that the company can be assisted as a unit.

The interventions are appropriate since the work in a way that prevents the contraction of diseases, maintaining health and health promotion. It is also appropriate since nurses in many countries are responsible for providing first line care before the patient gets contact with the physician. This is one of the pain reasons why nurses need to provide services to the community that work in terms of preventing diseases (Jencks, Williams & Coleman, 2009). It is important that the nurse recognize that they are the main providers of primary care in terms of contact with the patient and thus they are responsible for improving the lives of the patients. Nurses, intervening in issues involving poverty can also be justified because if this aspect of the patient is understood then this can be very easy to treat the patient. Most patients who are affected by poverty have a tendency to develop problems such as malnutrition, upper respiratory tract infections and even tuberculosis due to overcrowding. The social-economic history is thus very important due to the understanding of this probability to contract the diseases. It is also appropriate so that the nurse can connect the family to different government projects aimed at improving patient lives (Horner et al, 2003).

Outcomes

Interventions on the state of poverty of people by a nurse may lead to the families leading better lives. It may lead to the people living healthy and fulfilling lives due to the advice they may have been given (Spector, 2002). This may lead to the patient having a good understanding different ways of avoiding disease and also how to live healthy lifestyles. It may lead to the people eating a balanced diet no matter how small and this will eventually contribute to the general state of health of the individual. The nurse’s intervention would mean that the people understand the risks of living in unhygienic and crowded area. If this is improved then it would lead to tremendous reduction of the probability contracting infection. Nurses playing their part in reducing poverty will lead to the creation of a better environment. The main outcome of the interventions would lead to the government saving a lot of capital which would have been used in the treatment of those diseases and many issues. Through the government initiatives there would easily be a clear understanding of the needs of the patients and thus may in the future be in a good position to establish more projects. The intervention would generally improve the health of the country by reducing the number of deaths caused by preventable diseases (Jencks, Williams & Coleman, 2009).

Evaluation of Outcomes

Through the improvement of health by preventing diseases brought about by poverty the government saves income which can be used for other purposes. The intervention of the nurse to talk to the patient may help in reducing cases of depression and stress. When these are prevented then cases such as suicide may be reduced and the presence of a population that is emotionally healthy will lead to productivity as people who are not stressed are able to work well without hesitations. The other evaluation is that if the issue of poverty is resolved there can be a very good and peaceful environment because there would e reduction in cases of robbery and insecurity.

References

Horner, R. D., Swanson, J. W., Bosworth, H. B., & Matchar, D. B. (2003). Effects of race and poverty on the process and outcome of inpatient rehabilitation services among stroke patients. Stroke, 34(4), 1027-1031.

Jencks, S. F., Williams, M. V., & Coleman, E. A. (2009). Rehospitalizations among patients in the Medicare fee-for-service program. New England Journal of Medicine, 360(14), 1418-1428.

Spector, R. E. (2002). Cultural diversity in health and illness. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 197-199.